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Description and evaluation of serologic assays used in a multicenter trial of acellular pertussis vaccines
B D Meade1, A Deforest, K M Edwards
1Division of Bacterial Products, Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, MD 20852-1448, USA.
Insights
Standardized antibody assays for infant pertussis vaccines demonstrated good reproducibility and stability. These validated methods allow for reliable comparison of immune responses across different acellular and whole-cell pertussis vaccines.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Vaccinology
Background:
- Infant immune responses to pertussis vaccines are critical for disease prevention.
- Standardized and reproducible assays are essential for evaluating vaccine efficacy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe and evaluate assays measuring infant antibody responses to experimental acellular and licensed whole-cell pertussis vaccines.
- To assess the reproducibility and stability of these immunological assays.
Main Methods:
- Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for IgG antibodies to pertussis toxin, filamentous hemagglutinin, pertactin, and fimbriae.
- Chinese hamster ovary cell assay for pertussis toxin-neutralizing antibodies.
- Agglutinin (AGG) assay for whole-cell pertussis vaccine responses.
- Intra- and inter-laboratory reproducibility and temporal stability assessments were performed.
Main Results:
- ELISA assays showed coefficients of variation consistently below 20% for control sera.
- Assays demonstrated minimal drift (<20%) over the study period.
- Good correlation between two laboratories was observed for most assays (correlation coefficients ≥0.79), with some quantitative differences noted for AGG and pertactin.
Conclusions:
- The evaluated assay methods are reproducible and stable.
- Standardized assays can be transferred between laboratories.
- Results from these assays are comparable across different pertussis vaccines evaluated over one year.
Objective:
To describe and evaluate the assays used to measure the antibody responses in infants to 13 experimental acellular pertussis vaccines and 2 licensed whole-cell pertussis vaccines.
Methods:
During a 53-week period, preimmunization and postimmunization sera were assayed for immunoglobulin G antibodies to pertussis toxin, filamentous hemagglutinin, pertactin, and a mixture of type 2 and type 3 fimbriae by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), for whole-cell agglutinins (AGG), and for pertussis toxin-neutralizing antibodies by the Chinese hamster ovary cell assay. All ELISA reagents were characterized to assure antigen and isotype specificity of the assays. Intralaboratory reproducibility and temporal stability were evaluated by analysis of results of control sera and by assessment of the response to the control whole-cell vaccine. Interlaboratory reproducibility was assessed by repeating the assays on preimmunization and postimmunization sera for 10% of the infants in a second laboratory.
Results:
For control sera having antibody concentrations at least four times the minimum level of detection, the coefficients of variation within and between the ELISAs consistently were less than 20%. Trend analysis indicated that none of the assays drifted by more than 20% during the study period, and no significant drift was seen in the response to the control whole-cell vaccine. Results from the two laboratories correlated well; correlation coefficients were .93 or greater for the four ELISAs, .79 for the Chinese hamster ovary cell assay, and .82 for the AGG assay. For four of the six assays, there was either no difference or a modest (< 15%) difference in the geometric mean values for sera tested in both laboratories. Larger quantitative differences were observed for the AGG (45% difference) and pertactin (61% difference) assays.
Conclusion:
Assay reproducibility and stability indicate that the standardized methods can be transferred between laboratories, and that the results accrued during a 1-year period for the 15 vaccines can be compared.